MakeUseOf

Thousands of files don't need thousands of folders when you have this app

Oluwademilade Afolabi — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 19:30:17 GMT

My Downloads folder has apparently been hoarding stuff behind my back. I pointed TagStudio at it, and the app found 29,972 files. There were PDFs, screenshots, old software manuals, and enough forgotten downloads to keep a historian busy for a week.

My USB drive was much slower than expected, and one Windows setting was the reason

Gregory Gibson — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 19:00:16 GMT

My main work laptop sits on my desk, with my peripherals all conveniently plugged into the USB ports on the left-hand side. That frees up the other side for USB file transfers, but, for some unknown reason, those ports have always been significantly slower.

The Lenovo Tab One was already cheap, and it just scored another 50% off at Best Buy

Patrick Farmer — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 18:47:29 GMT

This time of year generally comes with a lot of good tablet deals, but that doesn't mean I can't be surprised from time to time. As part of its early holiday sale, Best Buy is carving a straight 50% off the Lenovo Tab One, making an already-cheap tablet even cheaper. This 8.7-inch couch companion boasts a bright display with an ultra-lightweight build and 64GB of onboard storage, and now it's only $99.

I used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the iPhone Duo for a week, and this is the wide foldable I’d keep

Brady Snyder — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 18:30:16 GMT

I've been using the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the iPhone Duo together for over a week, and these foldables have almost nothing in common aside from their wide form factor. Their dimensions, weight, software, and core features are all different, with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 prioritizing simplicity and the iPhone Duo swinging big (and sometimes whiffing).

3 Home Assistant projects you can actually finish in a weekend

Michael Bizzaco — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 18:00:17 GMT

You can program your smart home devices to execute some impressive automations, but these programmable conveniences usually come with a trade-off: the privacy of you and yours. The many titans of smart home tech — including major brands like Amazon, Google, and Apple — rely on cloud-tethered software to run the show. The more data mining, the better these companies get to know your daily habits and user preferences; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of this data is processed and logged externally.

I tried DLSS 5 in Roblox, and I wish I could unsee the results

Suman Biswas — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 17:30:17 GMT

Trying out the DLSS 5 mod in games that the tech was certainly not meant for has become a nice distraction for me. I recently tested out a bunch of games, from old PS2 classics like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time to the original MS-DOS DOOM, using DLSS 5. And despite the mixed results I got, it was still really impressive to see how Nvidia's neural rendering tech affects these older titles and their lighting engine.

Windows File Explorer makes deleting large folders painfully slow, but there's a faster way

Tashreef Shareef — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 17:00:18 GMT

Deleting files in File Explorer is as easy as hitting the Delete key, whether you're tidying up a project or clearing out Windows files and folders to free up disk space. However, this simple process becomes painfully slow when the folder has thousands of small files. Now imagine having to delete over 2 million logs from a server. You're looking at a deletion process that runs for at least half an hour.

Claude and a 3D printer are an absurdly useful combination

Yadullah Abidi — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 16:46:18 GMT

A 3D printer is great at solving oddly specific problems. A bracket here, a replacement part there, and before you know it, there's no problem too big. It all becomes a matter of being able to design the right part. But that five-minute idea can quickly become an evening of modeling and menu hunting. Nothing particularly difficult, just enough work to put it off.

David Lynch's Dune vs. Denis Villeneuve's Dune vs. the book, and which got it right

Dan Selcke — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 16:01:17 GMT

Writer-director Denis Villeneuve has done the impossible: in Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two, he adapted Frank Herbert's 1965 sci-fi classic in a way that resonated with the masses. Before this, many considered Dune to be unfilmable, in part because the 1984 movie version from director David Lynch is remembered so poorly, including by David Lynch.

DeWalt, Ryobi, and Milwaukee don’t agree on what a full battery looks like

Jonathon Jachura — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 15:31:16 GMT

Every cordless platform makes the same pitch: tap a button on the pack, count the green lights, and you’ll know whether it can finish the job. That gauge is part of why Ryobi, Milwaukee, and DeWalt are really selling battery platforms instead of tools, and it’s also where the three brands quietly part ways.